Prices
by Iris Serinium
Summary: It was all TenTen ever wanted...so why did it come with a price? TenTenxNeji


_**Softly we tremble tonight,  
Picture perfect fading smiles are all that's left in site,  
I said I'd never leave, and you'll never change,  
I'm not satisfied with where I'm at in life.** _

"I'm not going to hurt you, TenTen. But you're shaking is driving me mad." The word's fell from Neji's lips, brushing her eardrums in the same way that his lip brushed over her skin. A sigh slipped from her own mouth, making him look up with concern in his pale eyes. "I know, I'm fine." She replied simply, and willed herself to stop shaking. They had made love many times before, but never under these circumstances. The girl was shaking as she tried to suppress the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. He groaned slightly, seeing the damp sparkle in her eyes, and he quickly rolled over her, rubbing his face with his hands. "What am I going to do with you?" He murmured, looking down at the brunette as she snuggled close to his side. "It's not fair, Neji. It's just not damn fair. We just got married! You just became the head of your branch, in your clan! And now you've got to go." She buried her face against the warm skin of his chest, the male stroking her hair softly. "Believe it or not, TenTen, it's normal. Hiashi-sama said that he was sent out on a mission concerning the clan's business just a day after he came back from his honeymoon...Even Naruto, after he and Hinata were married, he didn't even _get_ his honeymoon for a week. Consider us lucky, _Tian-tian_, it just comes with the package." He whispered as he wrapped his arms around her, using her real name to show he was serious. TenTen sighed, twisting in his arms to look at him. "I love you." She said, biting her lip. He leaned down to kiss the small rivets she was making with the pressure of her teeth. "I love you too." Her dark-haired husband replied.

_**Am I supposed to be happy?  
When all I ever wanted, it comes with a price.  
Am I supposed to be happy?  
When all I ever wanted, it comes with a price.  
You said, you said that you would die for me....**_

The next day, Neji's branch of the Hyuuga clan all came out to see their head off. Hinata and Naruto were present as well, out of respect for their dear friend and relative. His bags were packed and the transport was ready; good-bye was the only task at hand. TenTen stood beneath him, looking up at him with her melted chocolate hues. He brushed a strand of chesnut hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear then cupping her cheek. "I'll be back soon, I promise, I swear it." Neji said softly, kissing her forehead. TenTen's eyes fluttered close for a moment, savoring the warm feeling upon her skin. They soon opened and she looked up, his gaze unwavering as it bore down into hers. "I trust you. Be careful. Be swift." She had uttered the same words every single time before he had left a mission. A smile flooded is cold features and he leaned down to kiss her deeply before turning to leave. She caught his hand and he stopped, allowing himself to be pulled back to her. "I love you. I love you more than anything, and if all else fails, I want you to remember that." TenTen said in an almost inaudible tone. Neji gave her a puzzled look, but nodded and kiss her again. "You're my life. I love you more than this earth. I'll always remember what we have TenTen, but I want you to remember, I'm coming back."

_**We made plans to grow old,  
believe me there was truth in all those stories that I told.  
Lost in a simple game cat and mouse are we the same people as before this came to light?**_

Seconds passed, minutes were longer, and hours were unbearable. Days turned into months, and the year was long. They had been caught in the middle of a civil war, in the Village of the Sheathed Stars. Neji could not return home safely until the war was over, and god knew how long that would be. Many ninja from their village had been sent to fight in the war, but Neji now made decisions for TenTen in the line of her work, and he would not allow her to accept the assignment, the same as Naruto refused to allow Hinata. As wives, they had to respect their husband's decisions, no matter how bad it hurt. He sent her letters, every day, a new letter. Her heart longed to have him in person, for his intelligent writings with few tender touches just weren't enough for her. She wanted to hold him and kiss him and love him like a wife should. She watched the other Hyuuga women who had been married around the time she and Neji had eloped, to find them with at least one child to accompany them in the long months of their partner's absence. Even Hinata had a son. TenTen was alone. "_When are you coming home?" _She had asked in her last letter to him, and he had replied with, "_Soon, darling, soon._"

She had ended each letter with : "_I love you, I love you more than anything. If all else fails, I want you to remember that." _

_**Am I supposed to be happy?  
when all I ever wanted, it comes with a price.  
Am I supposed to be happy?  
with all I ever wanted, it comes with a price.  
You said, you said that you would die for me...**_

One year. Gone. One year without him. She cried each day, and her sobs were louder when his letters ceased to coming three times a week, then twice, then once, and then none at all. She was crazed with not knowing where he was, if he was okay, what was happening, if he was coming back....If he still loved her. TenTen ached inside when she realized her last ninja companion in the village was Hinata, all the others gone. And Hinata was just as somber as she was! Matters became worse whena representative from the Village of the Sheathed Stars came, all dressed in black and carrying a piece of elegect looking parchment. Both TenTen and Hina stood outside, taking the place of Neji and Naruto in their absence. The letter was handed to Hinata, who undid the black ribbon with a shaky hand. She fell to her knees, sobbing, and the chocolate haired young woman became confused as she bent down to pick up the letter that had caused her cousin-in-law's distress. TenTen's heart skipped a beat and she quickly wrapped her arms around the widowed Hinata Hyuuga.

_**You must live for me too'...  
For me too...yeah, yeah...  
You said that you would die for me...**_

She made up her mind on the first day of February. Next week was the day of her anniversary and there was still no sign, no trace of Neji ever returning. She just had to know that he was still alive. She just had to be with him. With the secret agreement from Tsunade, she set off and left for the Village of Sheathed Stars. It took her nearly six days, and on the seventh, she arrived. No one but Temari knew of her arrival, and the blonde sand-nin greeted her warmly. "Welcome to the battle-zone, girly." The roughened, toned wife of Shikamaru Nara said, wiping a bit of sweat off her brow. What TenTen had seen was terrible. She had walked straight through a band of firing and watched people fall all around her! The wounded were everywhere and TenTen vaguely wondered if Sakura Uchiha would be the one to treat them. "Where's Neji?" TenTen had asked quickly and dryly when she found Lee who gave a fair chuckle. "Didn't know you were allowed to come here, TenTen, he's up in the bungalow." The Gai Sensei look alike had said. She had practically rushed upstairs, and he must have heard her flustered footsteps, because he threw open the door with an annoyed expression, though it changed quickly when he saw her. "TenTen!" Neji gasped as he caught her in his arms, hugging her close, his voice half tinted with anger, half tinted with confusion. "I love you!" She choked out through tears. "I couldn't stay behind...I just couldn't. I needed you, Neji." And then he looked down at her, his frustrated expression softened and he stroked her hair. There was a pause, and then a sigh, and then he spoke. "Hn." A smile flooded her pretty face because she knew that meant, _"I'm glad you came." _

_**Am I supposed to be happy?  
with all I ever wanted, it comes with a price.  
Am I supposed to be happy?  
when all I ever wanted, it comes with a price  
You said, you said that you would die for me...But you don't have tooo...**_

"Come on, TenTen, we've got a long journey to go and I'm anxious to get home." Neji said impatiently, tapping his foot as he watched the jovial woman before him laugh musically. It had been a long five years in the Village of the Sheathed Stars, and they both were more than read yo get back to their beloved village. "Just a moment, Neji...I forgot Kai's blanket." She said with a smile, scrambling off to get the woven blanket of the boy they had adopted. Kai was young, maybe five, and his parents had both been killed in the war. He hung onto Neji's hand tightly and looked up at him to find his father staring at his mother's back with a warmness in his gaze. Kai vaguely wished that his real father had looked at his mother that way, maybe even him. His family had been torn, then killed, and now he had all he wanted...But it came with a price.

* * *

Okay, so here comes the de-construction of this story. The song in the blanks is "Cat and Mouse" by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. I love this song, so no, you don't get to diss it. I posed the song because every time it said "You said that you would die for me" was like every time TenTen said her line "I love you. I love you more than anything. If all else fails, I want you to remember that." And the all I ever wanted comes with a price part was supposed to represent the fact that she and Neji were married, and he was happy being the head of their clan, but he still had duties to attend to that tore them apart. Also at the end, it was tied in and ended with Kai's broken family and his new one. I know it was kind of random, but I thought it was a cute way to end the story. Does that make sense? REVIEW AND I WILL SMILE!

-Iris Serinium


End file.
